Stunt Granny Poll: Were you ever in a backyard wrestling league?
If you were, pleeeease leave a comment with any information about it (your character, your gimmick, your finishing move, the fed’s name, the best memory from the league). There’s an audio a-brewin’!
When I was about 14, we were huge ECW marks. On occasion, we would venture into the woods to find plywood and have wild table matches, but we never did characters or any of that wacky Jericho4Life nonsense.
I was once invited to join the BYWF, run by some kids I went to school with. These guys wrestled on a trampoline, but did all the thumbtack/blading bullshit. They went through the trouble of typing up a “contract” and they told me that I would have to pass a tryout match first. I had lost my virginity by this point, so pulling tacks out of my scrotum in some Sophomore’s backyard didn’t really appeal to me.
Though my younger brother and I would wrestle on the water bed, we never got into a “league” so I went with Hell No. -K
5th grade. I was The Maniac and wrestled my friend Blake, aka The Spaz, in the first round of a tournament. It ended in a No Contest when Blake threw up on me. Jake, whose parents owned the backyard in question, booked himself to win but everybody kinda wandered off after the first round.
We never really established a league or anything and usually we borrowed other wrestlers names and moves…that’s when my dad told me about the scripted aspect of the business…he got tired of telling me no chair shots to my friends heads! When I got into high school and college and did a podcast with some friends, I went by Jugs Mahoney by way of paying tribute to Balls Mahoney.